Compost is available at numerous local nurseries. Check out the Woodstock Garden Club web site at www.woodstockgardenclub.org for a list of resources. In addition, you may want to go a step further and make your own compost. Inexpensive compost bins are available through Greater Valley Solid Waste http://www.guvswd.org/bins. They also have composting instructions at http://www.guvswd.org/compost.

  Organic vegetable gardens need a sunny, well-drained and fertile location. Plan your personal produce need. Figure the spacing for seed or plant purchases and future rotations. For soil, fertilization and pest control skip synthetics and chemicals and select organic products.

Henry Homeyer outlines in Notes from the Garden a recipe the Woodstock Garden Club prefers: In a wheelbarrow mix 2-3 shovels each good garden soil and composted manure, add 2 cups of a bagged organic fertilizer (example Vermont-made North Country Pro-Gro 5-3-4), 1 cup rock phosphate and 1 cup greensand. Dig holes for plants, add 5-6 inches of compost or aged manure followed by the soil recipe; pack it all down and plant, water well. (Mr. Homeyer's book, The Vermont Gardener's Companion is available in paperback for $14.95. It is published by Globe Pequot Press.)

Mother Nature needs all the coddling we can give her.